The rate of contraceptive use in Iran is high, but because abortion is illegal,
many unintended pregnancies among married women are likely to be terminated
by clandestine and often unsafe procedures, resulting in adverse health
outcomes. Drawing upon data from the 2009 Tehran Survey of Fertility, this
study estimates the levels and trends of unintended pregnancy and examines
determinants of pregnancy intentions for the most recent birth, using multinomial
logistic regression analysis. The level of unintended pregnancy decreased
from 32 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2009, while contraceptive use
increased. Unintended pregnancies in the five years preceding the 2009 survey
resulted from failures of withdrawal (48 percent) and of modern contraceptive
use (20 percent), together with contraceptive discontinuation (26 percent) and
nonuse (6 percent). Multivariate findings show that, compared with women
experiencing withdrawal failures, the risk of unintended pregnancy was higher
among women reporting modern contraceptive failure and lower among those
reporting contraceptive discontinuation and nonuse. The high risk of unwanted
pregnancy among women experiencing failures in practicing withdrawal or using
modern contraceptive methods points to an unmet need for family planning
counseling and education rather than to a shortage of contraceptive methods.